CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia, like all other states, is facing a deadline to submit a plan to the federal government on how the state will adapt itself to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The deadline for the plan is Sept. 16, 2016. The process of producing the plan will be long and complicated.
“We just started the information gathering state of this,” said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman. “We’ve sent out letters to every constituency group that might have an idea or thoughts about what this plan should hold.”
Ahead of the state’s formulation of a plan will be a feasibility study ordered by the legislature. Huffman said there will be a lot of complex data to compile just for the feasibility study. The legislation gave 12 points which should be addressed in the study and the legislature will be involved in creation of the final plan which is submitted to the EPA.
“We must make at least two feasibly determinations,” Huffman explained. “One is whether the creation of a state plan is feasible and two, whether it’s feasible to do it by the time of the deadline, which is the 2030 time frame.”
Huffman admits it’s not a labor of love because it will be a painful transition for West Virginia. There have been some suggestions, as a form of protest, the state simply ignore the deadline and refuse to submit a plan. Huffman didn’t share that belief.
“There’s probably wisdom to staying at the table,” he said. “If we don’t submit something, even if it’s non-committal, if we don’t submit something on Sept. 16th, we just left the table and we’re subject to whatever somebody else would want to impose on us.”
Huffman believed the feasibility study would not be completed until at least the spring. Once the study is done, the work to compile the plan to submit to the EPA will begin and be based on the findings of the study.
“The EPA has already made their determination about what is feasible, but they don’t have to run a state like we do,” Huffman said. “Our policymakers want to know the consequences and impact before we commit to anything.”